Sunday, March 13, 2005
Blog This!
My colleague, Mike Cargill, sent me a link on Friday with an advisory, "Blog this!" OK, I will.
The story he pointed to was about a Gallup poll that showed few Americans are aware of blogs and even fewer read them regularly.
Three-quarters of the U.S. public uses the Internet at work, school, or home, but only one in four Americans are either very familiar or somewhat familiar with blogs (the shortened form of the original "Web logs"). More than half, 56%, have no knowledge of them. Even among Internet users, only 32% are very or somewhat familiar with blogs.
Lest we get too messianic about blogs, we should remind ourselves they are still the buzz of the chattering classes and of the young.
Blog readers are younger than the population at large. Although 17% of the public is aged 18 to 29, a quarter of all blog readers (those who read even occasionally) are in this age bracket. At the older extreme, 17% of Americans are 65 and older, but only 6% of blog readers are this old.
Blogs will grow in importance but they aren't where we might like them to be yet. They will always be niche media: It is a matter of the size of the niche. If 100 percent of Americans were reading blogs but only 10% reading any one blog that would be about the best anyone could expect. It's a question of finding the right 10%.
The story he pointed to was about a Gallup poll that showed few Americans are aware of blogs and even fewer read them regularly.
Three-quarters of the U.S. public uses the Internet at work, school, or home, but only one in four Americans are either very familiar or somewhat familiar with blogs (the shortened form of the original "Web logs"). More than half, 56%, have no knowledge of them. Even among Internet users, only 32% are very or somewhat familiar with blogs.
Lest we get too messianic about blogs, we should remind ourselves they are still the buzz of the chattering classes and of the young.
Blog readers are younger than the population at large. Although 17% of the public is aged 18 to 29, a quarter of all blog readers (those who read even occasionally) are in this age bracket. At the older extreme, 17% of Americans are 65 and older, but only 6% of blog readers are this old.
Blogs will grow in importance but they aren't where we might like them to be yet. They will always be niche media: It is a matter of the size of the niche. If 100 percent of Americans were reading blogs but only 10% reading any one blog that would be about the best anyone could expect. It's a question of finding the right 10%.
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